This invention relates to a heavy duty bug and gravel shield assembly, especially designed for over-the-road trucks.
Many types of bug and gravel shield deflectors have been devised for motor vehicles, to both protect a vehicle windshield and to deflect debris and other foreign material away from impact on the shield. For the most part, these shields involve some sort of mounting bracket from which a shield extends either generally vertically upward or slightly rearwardly and upward. The shield is usually attached to the bracket, with the bracket itself being attached to the hood of the vehicle. Typical shields are represented by Redman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,129, and Thornburg, U.S. Pat. No. 3,015,517. While such shields are highly satisfactory for cars, there are special problems in designing shields for heavy, over-the-road trucks.
Heavy, over-the-road trucks require a much more durable, stronger, and tougher shield, primarily because of the excessive vibration energy that is transmitted to the shield and its holding brackets. This excessive vibration will often cause conventional shields to fail.
In the past, there have been some attempts at especially designed truck deflector shields, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,657, which relates to a shield mounted to a base that is especially adapted for attachment along the upper grill edge of a truck. Even with prior mounting systems, the continuing vibration and the multiplicity of parts, result in a high incidence of shield failure.
One of the ways to eliminate shield failure is, of course, to minimize the number of parts, and to design a shield mounting system which is not susceptible to failure as a result of high vibrations.
The present invention represents an improvement over the prior art in providing a shield of aerodynamically superior configuration, a shield which has a minimum of parts, one which has a base which fits in covering and conforming relationship to the front of the hood and to the top of a truck grill in a sort of "wrap-around" manner, and a shield designed such that the vibration energy is dissipated throughout the wrap-around base portion.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a truck shield which is comprised of minimum parts that dissipates vibration energy.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a truck shield which dissipates vibration energy through the entire base portion, thus eliminating vibration caused failures for the shield and the attachment means of the shield to the hood.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a shield which is aerodynamically superior and provides air flow under the shield. This improves the deflecting performance of the shield and prevents disruption of airflow to the engine from the air intake at the back of the hood. It also aids in proper windshield wiper performance.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an attractive shield of durable configuration and of economic manufacture and ease of installation as a result of minimized parts.
A still further objective is to protect the front edge of the hood from debris damage.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows hereinafter.